Rue La La Appoints Travel Industry Veteran Marka Jenkins Waechter General Manager of 'Experiences' Product Division

BOSTON, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Rue La La, a leading private-sale website, today announced it has appointed travel industry veteran and entrepreneur Marka Jenkins Waechter, as General Manager of its Experiences division. In this new role, she is responsible for expanding the network of partnerships with luxury travel and experience providers to complement Rue La La's lifestyle offerings.  

Jenkins Waechter brings more than two decades of business and entrepreneurial experience to Rue La La with proven success building and managing thriving travel companies. She was previously CEO of Seattle-based Metropolitan Travel, which provided corporate travel services to companies like Amazon.com, Nordstrom and Starbucks when it was acquired by Expedia in 2002.  While running Metropolitan, Jenkins Waechter was co-founder and CEO of Highwire, a pioneer in online corporate travel software configurable to any corporate travel policy and company brand.  Highwire was sold to Cendant Corporation (now Travelport) in 2001. Most recently, Jenkins Waechter has been providing business management and strategic planning consulting services to companies and non-profits and was brought in last year by Rue La La to help shape its travel and experiences strategy.

"Marka's entrepreneurial and travel expertise has allowed Rue La La to provide premium-brand travel partners with an innovative way to merchandise their offerings and market their brands," said Ben Fischman, CEO of Rue La La.  "Her extensive industry knowledge makes Marka the perfect liaison to introduce the Rue La La private-sale platform to luxury travel providers, enabling them to discretely extend their reach and market their brand to new and existing customers."

"The Rue La La private-sale Boutique platform is innovating how travel is being sold by providing our brand partners with one platform for both marketing and distribution -- an efficient way to drive sales without commoditizing products," said Jenkins Waechter. "I am excited to be part of such a creative team that is bringing the emerging online private-sale channel to the travel sector."  

Rue La La's Marketing and Distribution Program offers luxury travel brands high-reward partnerships to drive incremental sales without any upfront costs for insertion, promotion or marketing. Each Experiences Boutique is customized for each partner, open for only 48 hours and directly marketed to Rue La La's 1.2 million members.  Brand partners to date include hotels, resorts, spas, and cruise lines such as Windstar, Destination Hotels & Resorts, Canyon Ranch and The Lodge at Torrey Pines as well as individualized experience providers like Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving.

"It's not only exciting to be a part of the new Experiences Division that Rue La La has initiated, it's also been very productive," noted Roxanne Housley, vice president of sales and marketing, Canyon Ranch. "In the hospitality industry, it's exciting to find a fresh and creative way to capture new markets and achieve new successes. The site is hip, the message carries urgency and the sales results are satisfying. It's a great team to work with."  

More information about becoming a Rue La La Experiences partner may be requested through [email protected].

About Rue La La

A recognized leader in the online private sale space, Rue La La is an exclusive, invitation-only online shopping destination that offers premier-brands within timed private sale lifestyle Boutiques. Unexpected discovery, love of shopping and style, exceptional customer service and incredible value are the core of the company's foundation. Founded by Ben Fischman, Rue La La is a part of Retail Convergence Inc. (RCI), a GSI Commerce, Inc. company (Nasdaq: GSIC). Experience Rue La La by visiting www.ruelala.com.

SOURCE Rue La La